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Check Fraud
Check Fraud
How it
works: Someone steals checks from your home, office
or mailbox and forges your signature. Crooks don’t need blank checks to
pull off a check fraud. Many know how to easily remove the ink on checks,
often by “washing” them with a cleaning solvent. They also will alter
what’s already been written, such as by changing a check payable to the
I.R.S. to one payable to J.R. Smith. A counterfeiter also can make new
checks in your name using a home computer and a printer.
Warning
signs: You notice that checks are missing from your
checkbook or your reserve supply of checks. Mail containing checks or bank
account information is “lost” or appears to have been tampered with. You
spot unauthorized transactions on your bank statement.
Best
defense: Don’t carry more checks that you need. Keep
extra checks in a secure place. Write checks using a pen with thick, dark
ink. Draw lines to fill in gaps in the spaces where you designate to whom
a check is payable and the amount. John Brugger, a U.S. Postal Inspector
in Washington, adds that consumers should “insist that their checks have
built-in security features that help make them tamper-resistant to check
washing or counterfeiting.” Also immediately report to your bank any
irregularities in your bank statements. Report mail theft or tampering to
the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is listed in your phone book.
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